I'm in the process of building up an A65 engine, and I've just just noticed a slight groove in one of the follower stems, about a quarter of an inch above the tappet foot.
Can anyone tell me exactly how these items were manufactured please ?
It's occured to me that the bottom "foot" part might be friction welded onto the stem, and what I'm seeing is a weld that didn't completely "mushroom" out prior to grinding.
Just to be clear, I'm well aware that the stellite tips which actually bear on the cam lobes were brazed on, this isn't the issue.
The groove in the stem is about 2mm above the wear mark which comes from contact with the barrel.
It's definately not a wear ridge from the barrel, I can just about get my finger nail into it.
Anyone seen this before ?
Hi,
Finally found my nest of cam followers. 16 in all and none with the groove that you identified on yours.
3 of them have been drilled through the foot probably to make them lighter and 3 have concave rather than convex ends for the push rods. Why only 3 of each I do not know?
So none the wiser re your followers.
Dave.
Cheers Dave.
Thanks for making the effort to look.
After examining the suspect cam follower again, the wear marks on the stem (from contact with the barrel) seem to be about the same as the other three.
So I'm concluding that it's already done a considerable milage without failure.